By Dan Molinski

U.S. inventories of crude oil fell more than expected and domestic oil production also declined, according to data released Wednesday by the Energy Information Administration.

Benchmark U.S. oil prices that were higher before the mostly-bullish report came out extended those gains slightly afterward. The Nymex front-month crude contract for August delivery was recently up 1.5% at $73.91 a barrel.

Crude-oil stockpiles fell by 7.6 million barrels to 459.1 million barrels, and are now about 6% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had predicted crude stockpiles would fall by 4.1 million barrels from the prior week.

Oil stored at Cushing, the delivery point for U.S. stocks, fell by 1.8 million barrels from the previous week, to 41.7 million barrels, the EIA said in its weekly report.

U.S. crude-oil production slipped by 100,000 barrels a day from the previous week to 11.1 million barrels a day, according to the EIA.

Gasoline stockpiles unexpectedly fell by 2.9 million barrels to 240.1 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations for inventories to increase by 800,000 barrels from the previous week.

Distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, rose by 1.8 million barrels to 137.9 million barrels and are now about 4% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Earlier in the week, analysts had forecast distillate supplies would rise by 600,000 barrels from the previous week.

The refining capacity utilization rate unexpectedly fell by 0.4 percentage points from the previous week to 92.2%, compared with analysts' forecasts for a 0.5 percentage-point increase from the previous week.

U.S. oil inventories for the week ended June 18: 
 
         Crude Gasoline Distillates Refinery Use 
EIA data: -7.4  -2.9    +1.8       -0.4 
Forecast: -4.1  +0.8    +0.6       +0.5 
 
Note: Numbers in millions of barrels, with the exception of refinery use, which is in 
percentage points. 
 

Write to Dan Molinski at dan.molinski@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 23, 2021 11:01 ET (15:01 GMT)

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